Big Drop

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Skybuds produces truly wireless earbuds. We are a startup scheduled to release a product at the end of the summer.

What is your position?

I am the head of operations within the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Big Drop?

We needed help in developing an e-commerce site for the company, which would act as our main sales channel.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

It was a collaborative effort with other agencies too, but Big Drop designed and built our website. We also worked with a branding agency which helped with much of the design.

They were very patient with us. When we initially approached Big Drop, we only had a few ideas of what the website would look like. They gave us the best designers and helped in creating it from scratch. We had no e-commerce experience when we first started. We started off with a WordPress site on which bluCommerce was plugged-in. As we learned more about the importance of managing customer data, we requested switching to a Magento platform. Big Drop assigned their best Magento developer, who worked on the backend elements. The design elements, which were made by our branding agency, were also given to Big Drop. They worked on the frontend elements based on that material.

How did you come to work with Big Drop?

We wanted to work with a New York-based company. We searched Google and looked at the portfolios of the various companies which came up. Big Drop had built very beautiful, artistic websites for many different people, which resonated with us.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

Sorry, this is confidential.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project was started in May of 2015. We are now fine-tuning the work and hope to launch the site within a month. We have been in the process of figuring out our marketing approach, and as such, we asked our branding agency to make additional changes. It didn't make sense for Big Drop to reserve some of their development resources for us, given that we had no clear direction for marketing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Our website's functionalities are great. I asked a friend who is a Magento developer to review the code, and he told me that it was very solid. We're very happy with Big Drop's work and are excited to launch our website this summer.

How did Big Drop perform from a project management standpoint?

Big Drop was very responsive throughout the project. I knew that I could get in touch with our project manager at any point in time. They used many offshore developers. Ours were in Ukraine, but I never knew the difference in terms of communication.

Any emails sent to Big Drop will have a reply within the hour. They work after business hours, given that the development team is in Ukraine. We were always made to feel like ours was the only project on which Big Drop was working. I was never put on hold when I had an inquiry.

What distinguishes Big Drop from other providers?

I haven't worked with many web development companies. Even though we were assigned a project manager by Big Drop, if I couldn't get in touch with him, I always had access to their owner. He made sure that everything was handled as fast as possible. I find the fact that Big Drop's owner is actively working on multiple projects and the fact that he stayed in contact with us to be a nice touch.

Is there anything Big Drop could have improved or done differently?

Because there has been a bit of a language barrier, we had to be very clear in our emails. A lot can be lost in translation, and I found that Big Drop's team can sometimes take directions literally. They always met us halfway though.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are an intellectual property strategy and valuation consulting firm.

What is your role at the company?

I am the founder and president.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Big Drop?

We needed a new website to attract business and to display media, such as articles and events, and information about services.

What were your company's business goals for the project?

We wanted to get a state-of-the-art, visually appealing website, as well as a new logo. 

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

It was for web design, logo design, SEO [search engine optimization] strategy, and a professional look and feel.

How did you come to work with Big Drop?

We looked at online reviews and their portfolio of work, and selected them from three other providers based on their responsiveness to our proposal and their quality of work.

What is the status of this engagement?

It completed about two years ago [2014].

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We have received great traction from the work with Big Drop. The percentage of business resulting from people finding us online has increased to more than 50 percent of the business in an industry that is traditionally a referral type. We are showing up on the first page in Google organic searches for key search keywords, resulting in great conversion of people finding the site and calling in or submitting a contact request.

How did Big Drop perform?

They gave us excellent customer service and a great-looking website, as well as a fantastic new logo and very effective SEO.

What distinguishes Big Drop from other providers?

I don't work with software or web designers on a regular basis. This is a relatively new company and, since I am the founder, I get involved in web design. Working with Big Drop was a very good experience for me in general.

In hindsight, are there areas in which they could improve or things you might do differently?

I would have created fewer pages and made the pages shorter, but that has nothing to do with Big Drop. They followed our instructions and have been very responsive to all our changes.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an Operations Specialist at a medical marijuana dispensary serving essentially all medically qualified medical marijuana patients in Massachusetts. I handle all of the online communication that comes our way via email, social media and competitor sites. I’ve been in charge of maintaining our entire website through Big Drop. I’ve been sort of the liaison between us and Big Drop.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Big Drop?

We use and update our website every day; it’s not something we set up and forget about. The biggest reason for our online presence is our menu. We have 10-12 different strains of marijuana and those change daily, and we have over 150 infused products to offer our patients. We update our menu every single night for the next day, so we see upwards of 4,000 site visits daily. We also use our website for our careers page; this is a growing industry and people want to join our team, so we have an active career portal for the company. We also update our site with news and events about what we’re doing as a company through our philanthropy group. But primarily we needed our website to connect patients to resources because the process of being a medical marijuana patient can be incredibly confusing.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Big Drop helped design and develop the website. They help with any new requests we might need. I have some background with Wordpress from previous jobs, but working with them has been really great for doing everything from complex tasks to simple things I don’t have time for in my day. I don’t know if other websites are as complicated as ours, but they’ve handled everything really nicely.

We do our daily menu update, but they’re always available if we run into a glitch or if we need more complicated things. They’re mostly backup unless we need to bring them on for larger things like reworking our careers page, which they were able to bang out in a couple of days. Actually, the project manager recently reached out to us to make sure everything was okay, and we were like, “Yeah, everything is working great, the site is perfect!” They’re great about being proactive like that.

How much have you invested with Big Drop?

To be honest, I don’t know. It started with another member of the company who created the vision and started to conversation with them, and I just came in to execute the project. I’ve been the liaison ever since, but I’m not entirely sure about the price range.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with Big Drop since the end of 2015, so it’s been a little over a year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

They’ve been great. The greatest feature that they set up for us was Google Analytics. They set up the pages to be easy to read, and in terms of that, they’ve been great. We see about 4,000 visitors to the site, but that number increases monthly. Theoretically, every patient is looking on our site an average of every four days. That’s exciting for us; we’re getting a lot of exposure. We get a lot of members to the site partly because we’re one of the biggest dispensaries in Massachusetts, but we’re also really active with our marketing and everything. I think Big Drop has been a big part of that. They’ve made our site straightforward and easy.

How did BigDrop perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re really hard-working. I don’t know if they do this for everyone, but they’ve been extremely helpful for us in emergency situations. Garry was so kind. He gave me his personal cell phone number and said, “If you need anything, give us a call.” I had his team working on the weekend one time.

They just go above and beyond your average development company. Sometimes it’s hard because they work kind of quirky hours, so if we don’t get a request in super early it can be a bummer, but they’ve also been great about emergency situations. Somehow he always finds someone to help us out. Danil, our project manager has been super responsive. He will answer every single email right away. He always wants to set up Zoom meetings to make sure that our visions are on the same page. Work with Danil has been awesome. He has his act together and he’s super organized. Boris, the other manager, is really proactive about making sure things are okay with us.

What did you find most impressive about Big Drop?

I can’t speak highly enough of their ethic and their project managers. Garry’s an awesome dude to work with. They’ve continued to produce work that we’re really happy with. They make sure it looks good on every platform. We can be really particular about that. We’ll say, “It doesn’t look good on a 2014 MacBook Air,” and they’ll dive in and make sure it’s a quality site on that platform in particular.

Are there any areas Big Drop could improve?

I’m not going to lie: in the beginning, we went through several project managers, and they’re no longer with the company. We can have a lot of requests and sometimes we’ve really pushed them to work hard, and in the beginning, the work just wasn’t being produced. Now it’s a complete turnaround. I’ve been so pleased working with our latest project manager. Other than that, the only thing is they typically work from 4 AM to noon, which is fine unless the site crashes later in the day.

That’s when I have to find Garry and he has to scramble to find somebody. It would be better if they had a local developer who could work different hours, or an on-call person for the weekends. But that’s special treatment stuff; I don’t think it’s a huge detriment to their organization. It would just be convenient.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a small team of four full-time employees working as jury consultants. We work within the litigation industry offering mock-trial research, witness preparation, and jury selection in support of civil defense cases. Our main office is in Chicago, and we have offices in Houston and Lexington. We travel to projects nationwide.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Big Drop?

We were looking to rebrand our logo and website.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

Big Drop developed our site using WordPress. It was my first time working with the platform, and it proved to be a much better solution than the one we were previously using.

How did you come to work with Big Drop?

We shopped around and were intrigued by Big Drop. They had won an award for being one of the top 10 design firms in the nation. We liked their website's style and wanted to capture that for ourselves. We work in a bit of a staunch, almost dry industry. We work with patent attorneys and other serious individuals. We do a very serious job, but also want to think that we bring in a fun side to the industry. Big Drop did a great job in capturing that.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The total development cost was between $20,000-30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in March of 2015. The website was launched in May, making it a three-month project. We've since worked on two revisions of the site.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The experience with Big Drop has been overall very positive. It was a rigorous process, and we've constantly received compliments as a result of it. The site is very responsive.

What distinguishes Big Drop from other providers?

We are a small company, and everyone has an opinion. Avoiding the "too many cooks in the kitchen" scenario was a challenge for us. Big Drop made sure that we were all pleased in the end.

We had some very specific requests, so Big Drop pushed back on us on a few occasions, letting us know that certain elements wouldn't work and explained why. I liked the consultation part of the process.

Is there anything Big Drop could have improved or done differently?

In the design phase, there were a few timing issues, given that some of their team is located in Europe. It wasn't a huge deal, but we were pushing them to get the work done quickly. Their responsiveness was a bit slower than we would have wanted during that phase.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a technology company based in the United States, and we developed a new type of camera technology.

What is your role at the company?

I am the CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Big Drop?

We wanted them to build a presales website​ for us. The goals were to make the site quickly and affordably.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

They provided us with web design and web development services.

How did you come to work with Big Drop?

Their owner, Garry [Kanfer], was willing to work fast, lean, and cheap. As a startup with very limited capital, it ​was a great fit for us.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

I believe it was roughly $25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

​The project was not 100 percent completed. We had to bring on an internal team to complete the project before launching.​ BigDrop did 80 percent of the work. They were great on iterating quickly and providing solid design ideas and implementing them. We had more issues with the back-end, where we had to change many things before launching out site. I am confident they could have delivered 100 percent of the project if we had more time.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The results were great.​ We had a very successful presales campaign.

How did Big Drop perform?

Big Drop performed well.​

What distinguishes Big Drop from other providers?

They worked hard. Garry was always very responsive, and they were willing to expand the scope of the project as needed.​

In hindsight, are there areas in which they could improve or things you might do differently?

They could have done a better job at the back-end, which we ended up doing ourselves.​

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a Harbortouch Point of Sale Provider. We provide merchant services and Harbortouch POS Solutions to restaurant and retail businesses. 

What is your position?

I am the president of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was the business challenge that you were trying to address with Big Drop?

We needed to revamp our website. We were looking to create a modern and updated look, as well as a user-friendly experience.

What were your company’s business goals for the project?

Our goal was to ultimately convert more leads through our online marketing with a new site.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

I believe it took about 7 months from start to finish. It was a completely new site.

What was your process for selecting Big Drop to work with?

We contacted numerous firms and were most comfortable with Big Drop based on their reviews and the previous work they’ve done for other companies.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

Our total cost was $23,000.

When was the project completed?

The site was launched around December of 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Our conversion rate is up about 15% from this time last year. We have also converted more sales during the first quarter of 2016.

How did Big Drop perform from a project management standpoint?

Big Drop performed great. Their team worked with me throughout the process and was easy to work with. I would use them again if need be.

What distinguishes Big Drop from other providers?

Big Drop had a calculated process from start to finish, which helped streamline the design of the site. 

Is there anything Big Drop could have improved or done differently?

Not at this time. They accomplished what we were looking for in a new website.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Our company is the first 100% free online marketplace for lease transfers. We facilitate transfers for people who are looking to get out of their leases early due to financial or other reasons, but we also provide services for people who are looking to get into short-term leases and find it more convenient to sign on to a six-month up to a one-year lease. We facilitate the meeting of these two types of customers completely free.

What is your position?

I am the chief executive officer and founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Big Drop?

The biggest issue we faced was building our platform from scratch. It's a social networking site which has some advertising mixed in. We had to integrate our functionality to work similar to our competitors' sites. Our biggest issue was that there was no template which we could use. Our solution implies a lot of variables and X factors, meaning that we had to build it from scratch.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

I wanted to keep the platform as simple as possible, but given the amount of information that would be required for the site to operate, keeping it simple was a challenge in itself. We had to integrate an internal messaging system between users, an upload system for sharing photos, and so on. The main challenge was making a platform that could sustain a large amount of traffic.

How did you come to work with Big Drop?

I googled the top development companies in New York City and came to two options, one of which was Big Drop.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The total development cost of the project was between $70,000-100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project took two years to complete.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The beta version had a lot of kinks and bugs to be fixed. Any platform that is built from scratch will have these problems. After a six month beta testing and fixing process, we were able to launch the platform.

Big Drop was able to bring our site to the number one position in Google for some of the main keywords in the industry. Before even getting to the top page, we had between 5,000 to 10,000 unique visitors per month. The average time spent on the site for each client was around 2 minutes, which is unheard of on the internet. Figures only grew from there. We had a few fluctuations in terms of Google ratings and traffic, but this is a new site and people are still learning its name.

We're starting to launch a campaign with a major media outlet and our numbers are picking up again, but Big Drop's accomplishment was impressive from the start.

What distinguishes Big Drop from other providers?

I've worked with a few different companies in the past. Every part of the scope was executed as expected by Big Drop. We had no issues during the process. Like any startup, there will be some bugs and small personal crises. People usually panic during these situations, but Big Drop was very level-headed and handled every situation thrown at them.

The biggest problem we experienced was with our upload function, which kept crashing. They worked on it and, within an hour, the site was up-and-running again. I have nothing but good things to say about Big Drop. They do excellent work.

Is there anything Big Drop could have improved or done differently?

If they had more clientele, they'd have a bigger staff. If that was the case, they'd be able to get some things done quicker. I'm not saying that they were slow, but an increase in speed would always be welcomed.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a car dealership in central New Jersey.

What is your position?

I am the sales manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Big Drop?

We had a standard website, similar to what is used by most dealerships in the industry. We worked with a management system which kept our inventory in check. We realized that there isn't much room to move forward by using standard industry sites. They're not built for search engine optimization and aren't very responsive. We were losing a lot of leads and customers as a result, so we decided to find a company specialized in building sites.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

Big Drop provided website design and development for us. We're now starting SEO work for the site and are also remarketing our company brand.

How did you come to work with Big Drop?

I found Big Drop online, but also received a referral from a friend. It put my mind at ease to find out that other people had been successfully working with them, so I got in touch with Big Drop. They showed me some of their work and I liked it. We decided to move forward with our collaboration.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The total development cost of our website design was around $25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in 2014. Our site was completed in mid-2015, but we continue to work with them on other projects.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

I’m very happy with the work that Big Drop did. The main goal for me was to revamp our site and generate more leads. Over the last year, I’ve definitely seen an increase in the results I was looking for. We’re still working with Big Drop, and I’m very happy with their service.

What distinguishes Big Drop from other providers?

I appreciate the fact that they're responsive. I'm sure that there are other companies that do the same type of work, but I've had collaborations in which I didn't receive a response for days. With Big Drop, there's always someone available to talk to us, either via email, Skype, or any other form of communication. I spoke with one of their developers this morning, explained to them what I wanted for our project, and I've already gotten a response.

Is there anything Big Drop could have improved or done differently?

Not that I can think of. I'm satisfied with all aspects of the work that Big Drop did.

BACKGROUND

Please provide a brief description of your company.

My company produces high-end videos.

What is your role at the company?

I am the owner and Director of Photography.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was the business challenge you were trying to address when you approached Big Drop?

We were looking to create a visually stunning website that would do an excellent job of representing the company. Our goals were to solidify our reputation of creating spectacular visuals, gain new clientele and create a showcase to display my content better than on YouTube or Vimeo.

SOLUTION

Can you tell me about the scope of the project?

Big Drop built a simple but classy five-page website.

What was your process for selecting Big Drop to work with?

I did a lot of online research followed by a couple of phone interviews.

Can you give us a sense of the size of the project in dollar terms?

I have spent about $15,000 working with Big Drop.

When was the project completed?

The project was completed in September 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the results of the project? What has Big Drop helped you achieve as a company?

I now have a beautiful forum on which to display my work. I can now direct potential clients them to my company website. Big Drop performed very well.

Was there anything unique or special about Big Drop compared to other companies that you may have worked with?

I appreciated the extra time that the developers spent with me on the phone discussing the creative aspects of my website.

Looking back on the project, is there any area that they could improve or do differently?

Web development is usually a thankless job. Compared to other companies I have dealt with, my small complaints are trivial.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

This was strictly a personal project.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Big Drop?

We wanted to create a website for a community of people through which they could meet and interact. We needed to find somebody to develop an online network and a video explanation of the community for potential members.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

The project involved developing an interactive social networking website that would include member profiles, photos and messages, and an explainer video for the site.

How did you come to work with Big Drop?

We sent RFPs [request for proposals] to about six to eight different IT [information technology] companies and selected Big Drop after reviewing their responses.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

We've spent somewhere between $40,000 and $50,000 working with Big Drop.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project was concluded in June 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the results of the project?

The website is up and running, and Big Drop performed very well.

What distinguishes Big Drop from other providers?

Their responsiveness was excellent, and their commitment to project objectives and scope was impeccable.

In hindsight, are there areas in which they could improve or things you might do differently?

They could have improved their attention to detail.